University of Illinois Springfield women’s soccer coach Molly Grisham received a surprise email last month from former Chatham Glenwood High School standout Maggie Juhlin.
The all-state defender spent three weeks in July and two weeks in the preseason preparing for her freshman season at NCAA Division I Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, but thoughts of transferring entered her mind.
She contacted Grisham about playing for the Division II Prairie Stars.
Grisham jumped at the offer to add Juhlin to the UIS roster.
“Anytime we can support a local player, that is a good thing for us,” Grisham said. “Our program has struggled to get local players here, and we understand players want to look at other schools and try something different, but whether that means coming here as a freshman and playing or trying somewhere else and coming back, we want local players to know the door is always open here.”
“Drake didn’t really feel like the right fit for me after I was there over the summer then went back for the preseason,” Juhlin said. "When I came back, I decided I still wanted to play soccer and continue my education. I knew that Molly and (former Glenwood standout Erin Egolf) had taken over the program here and were trying to turn it around, so I contacted them to see what they thought. I knew I wanted to be close to home and I knew they want to turn the program around, so I thought I could help with that.”
This article appeared online in The State Journal-Register on September 24, 2015.
Read the entire article here.
